C Universe Online is a fictional Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game based of course in the DC Universe. Our story originally begins in a future post-apocalyptic ruined territory of Metropolis. It’s a scene where our world’s greatest heroes are engaged in a battle against villains and super villains. During the FMV you witness the death of several heroes including Superman by the overzealous and obsessed Lex Luthor. With most our heroes neutralized and out of the way, surviving villains like The Joker and Lex are in for a bigger battle. Brainiac’s forces fill the sky soon after interrupting Luthor and Joker’s victory moment. Overwhelmed by his new rivals and scarce support, Luthor infiltrates Brainiac’s mother ship pursuing evidence of Brainiac’s upper hand. Luthor then steals pirated Exobytes(Nano-Machines or Nanites that bond to a host giving them abilities and superpowers) from the mother ship only to later on somehow take a time machine to present day Metropolis and disperse them into the civilians. Luthor then somehow finds his way to into the Watchtower and tells his story to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman of how he’s from the future and that their present day Earth will be in danger without the reinforcements and help he provided by spreading the stolen gift he swiped from Brainiac. Now the Justice League are skeptical on if they can trust these average Joes turned Metahuman but Luthor negotiates that with the right training and mentoring from our heroes, they can be a great asset. So our story continues:

Factions

“Revengers!! Assem… assemm… just.. just get over here!!!!”

After viewing the FMV, you are then spawned into the Create-A-Character screen. You first start off by the usual options like sex, body type, faction, movement type, weapons, powers, and mentor. Choosing a faction is clearly based on who your Mentor will be. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are all Hero factions. Now if you’re into to robbing civilians blind at an ATM, beating up Gotham PD, or stealing diamonds from an armor truck then Joker, Lex Luthor, or Circe would be your Villain mentors. Some of the weapons choices that are acquirable are martial arts, brawling, rifles, staffs, one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, and are beloved shield. Depending on your character or preference, you can use any weapon skill the whole game or you can switch later on. Fire, Ice, Sorcery, Mind Control, Electricity, Gadgets and Earth are some of the few powers that can be assigned to your Hero or Villain. Before you choose note that these powers will take on a role which I will explain later on. There’s also a movement that lets you choose to run with lightning speed like The Flash, fly like Superman, or use acrobatics like Batman. For instance, my first character was a powerful fire tank hero whose weapon of choice was brawling, that can fly and was mentored by Superman. There’s so many options and characteristics so we’ll let the player decide.

Roles

As I said before, your skill powers will say what your role will be the entire game. There are 4 roles in DCUO and I will explain a little of all. Every hero or villain starts off as a Damage or DPS. A Damage’s role is to neutralize and destroy the enemies as quickly as possible to advance to the next mission or parameter. Then there is tanking. A Tank’s role instead is to collect as much agro he/she can to keep all enemies concentrated and avert damage from the team. The Tank also “debuffs” allies by using certain moves to abolish and reset control factors by the enemy. Fire and Ice are powers the Tank are usually assigned for. There’s also a Controller whose role is to keep the entire team’s Power at full capacity or “buffed” and assisting the DPS by capturing and neutralizing enemies and keeping a combo meter up. A Controller is usually assigned Mind Control capabilities and Gadgets. Last but not least, there’s a Healer whose purpose is to keep all allies’ health to the max. A Healer’s powers include Earth, Electricity, and Sorcery. All roles have a purpose and need to work together. It will make missions and tasks a lot easier and make gaming experience better as well. Plus, it adds the cliché paper, rock, scissors to the mix when battling.

Skill Trees

An MMORPG wouldn’t be an MMORPG without Skill Trees. These will come critically important on telling how strong your character will become. You first start off as a level 1 and as you progress through the game you unlock Power and Skill points which can be used to unlock different styles on how you use powers, weapon skill points to unlock combos, Innates, and even Iconic Powers like Captain Marvel’s Word of Power that heals your health partially. This might confuse or overwhelm you a bit but in fact it’s really quite simple. Power points for instance unlock abilities like fireballs or the ability to cover your entire body in ice where Skill point’s unlock different actions for projectiles like how many times in a row a shield can be launched or the size of shurikens. Then you have Innates which are certain skills like how fast you can fly or run or abilities that will increase resilience, health, defense, toughness, and more.

Phases/PvE and PvP

In DC Universe Online there are two different phases to jump in that will suit your liking. In PvE, your main concern is fighting AI controlled opponents and working your defense up by completing missions given to you by your mentor. When starting as a Hero or Villain, both will receive a communicator and will be briefed by either Oracle from the Watchtower or Calculator in the hall of Doom. Your only focus in PvE is completing those tasks, collecting armor for your character, and leveling up to level 30. Once you hit 30 you can then participate in Instances like Solos, Duos, Alerts, Raids, Arenas, and Legends. Be warned though as the better your level and Combat Rating is, enemies will be tougher. So when the going gets tough, I would advise shopping from NPCs (Non Playable Characters) all over Metropolis, Gotham, Central City, Watchtower, and even the Hall of Doom. In game cash you collect will only get you so far so by completing Solos and other instances you’re awarded gear along with Marks or Tokens, strictly for purchasing iconic battle suits and armor upgrades for you character. Now, in PVP, it’s a whole other story. In a Person vs Person phase, it’s you versus the world. There are no handicaps and although you can still participate in missions and tasks, rivals will have no boundaries. The PvP flag on your hero or villain is always on so at any time if exploring the open world is the task that needs completion, you can be interrupted by a different faction way stronger than you and hence the battle for your pride happens. All of the above I explained can be conquered in the PvP phase so it’s up to the player whether or not privacy or chaos is in their agenda. Furthermore, more Defense is needed for AI controlled opponents while Toughness is needed to survive longer against Player controlled characters.

Alerts/Raids

Alerts or Raids are missions that can be accessed in the instance menu. They consist of different missions in smaller maps that require a team of four or eight to accomplish and finish. There’s an option of picking Tier 1 from 4 missions. Tier 1 missions are starters for level 30s while Tier 4 are for experts. It’s your decision to assemble your own team and work together to complete or you can jump in the instance menu solo and work with a bunch of randoms. Some alerts start off with the appropriate roles while others might consist of all one type. Work together and endure as a team or in some cases be booted. These missions are often difficult and if you don’t have the right team, expect frustration and rage quitting. But if you do make it, the reward at the end is worth it because you’re rewarded stronger and more resilient gear along with maybe 2 or 3 times more Marks you can get in Solos or Duos combined.

Arenas/Legends

In DC Universe Online, the instance menu gives you the option of playing in Arenas or Legends. These are Team Death match and Capture the Flag style games. Arenas consist of maybe 8 on 8 and let you use your own Created hero. It helps though to be a higher Tier than the rest or pray for maybe more than one Healer. The rewards are Influence and Marks of Strategy and Victory to purchase stronger PvP armor. If you ever wanted to fight as Batman or stand against the heroes as the Joker, the Legends mode is for you. This time instead of participating in TDM of CTF matches with your created character, you’re allowed to pick an Iconic Hero or Villain. It’s fun to be someone else every once in a while and Legends lets the player do that. We get to see Iconic battles like Sinestro versus Hal Jordan or Batman versus the Joker. In this mode it doesn’t matter if you’ve played longer than any of your rivals or your gear is better than theirs because in Legends all our Iconic Heroes and Villains have a fixed health and armor type. It’s a matter of which player knows his/her Legend’s power and moves type more and can be more successful.

DC Universe is a great game by my experience. It might come with some flaws like lagging and pop-in issues, sound gaps and glitches but a Free-To-Play game can’t always be perfect. I actually reserved the game back when it came out so the disk now collects dust because it’s not needed to play anymore. Just make sure to have at least 15GB of memory on your HDD if you’re trying to play on the console. Furthermore, there is an option to Pay-To-Play in DCUO and those subscribers do have more of an advantage than Freemium members. Producers and Developers still release DLC to this date and adds more fun and gameplay to the mix. I for one still play this game to this date because it’s more than a cheap thrill to me, it’s DC Universe!